York County considering bus line to connect to light rail

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Transit officials in Rock Hill and Fort Mill are considering using US 21 for a bus line (possibly BRT) to terminate at I-485, then hop on light rail to get to Uptown. This would also give passengers easy access to neighborhoods such as Regent Park and not-yet-built Springfield, and employment hubs such as CitiFinancial, the future Fort Mill hospital and the old Celanese site, where a huge industrial park is envisioned.

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It's an interesting idea and success will depend greatly upon the details on how it is implemented. One fault that I see in the plan is that LRT is not commuter rail so I don't know if people will be willing to first ride the bus from RH to the 485 station only to get onto a LRT car where they will have to travel through 10 stops before getting downtown. If it were me, I think I would prefer just taking an express bus all the way to downtown Charlotte.

It would be nice however if they worked with the MTC to put a bus facility at the station where it might be a bit more pleasant to wait on the bus for the trip home.

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As you mentioned Metro...I would have to board a bus, ride North on 21 (bus lanes be damned, there are intersections at 160 and Gold Hill that the bus would have to stop at, merge onto 485 and then drive into Pineville. You then catch a light rail train.

This would add at least 30 minutes to my commute. No way I'm doing that.

I was talking with some folks about this the other day. Anyone that knows highway 21 going through Ft. Mill knows that it dramatically needs additional lanes. Sacrificing that space for two lanes of dedicated bus lanes makes no sense to me. Growth along that corridor is booming, it won't be long until sections of that road are choked completely. Add to that the fact that the road currently occupies one of only five lanes to cross the Catawba (the other being 4 lanes of 77) and you have a HUGE mess if there is a wreck going either way.

We need those lanes to increase the capacity of 21 North and South.

I shudder to think how much money dedicated bus lanes to 485 would be. A better solution would be to spend that money on widening 21 to 5 lanes, adding an additional bridge over 77 off of Mt. Gallant in Rock Hill, and earmarking funds for commuter rail in 20 years when the traffic is bad enough to warrant it.